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Another respondent was acidic about the industry generally. “I’ve become a firm believer that most of our campus leaders are stuck in a ‘quick fix’ mentality when it comes to enrollment success,” he wrote. “I continue to see campuses make knee-jerk reactions and spend heavily to improve enrollment in the short run, only to see the cycle turn downward once the strategy is no longer viable, or their competition matches that strategy with one of their own. True campus-culture changes are the real creators of success, but most leaders are too afraid to upset the apple cart and deal with the inevitable groaning from faculty.”

“I am thinking, frankly, that we have to have productivity gains in higher education,” said John Curry, a former vice president at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who now works for the Huron Consulting Group. “The big gains have to come out of the education-research sector because that is still on the order of 70 percent of the operating budget of universities.”

First, the possibility that higher-education institutions are unfocused. The “buffet model” of higher education—where students come to a college and choose from a vast array of majors and programs—is not financially sustainable, Mr. Staisloff said. “That points to a disconnect between the mission and market,” he said. More institutions should ask themselves: What are we good at? What can we offer that you can’t just get anywhere? And perhaps they should offer a more-limited palette of majors and programs.

Most Likely: More Startups, More Schools Offer MOOCs

edX has a track record, albeit brief, of partnership and open access. Perfect for a smaller school without a big technology budget. Look for online schools to perhaps form a similar partnership so they can offer MOOCs. The online schools version would likely be powered by a third-party like Udacity or Coursera. Meanwhile, large tech companies and startups alike work to carve out their own niche in the MOOCs landscape. There’s a lot of money to be had in the transition of education so don’t be surprised if this happens no matter what the future holds for MOOCs.